Montgomery High School student admits spray-painting racial epithet

Martin Griff/The Times of Trenton.Montgomery High School in a 2005 photo.

MONTGOMERY – Police have apprehended a 16-year-old Montgomery High School student who they say admitted to spray-painting a racial epithet on the school building earlier this month.

The teen, who police did not name because he is a juvenile, also painted “anti-Christian” symbols on St. Charles Borromeo church, police said in a news release. Both graffiti incidents happened in the early morning of March 5.

Now, the police department is in consultation with the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office and looking to charge the teen with criminal mischief.

The youth was found with another 16-year-old, also a Montgomery High student, early Monday while the teens were driving in the Woods Edge development. Police were searching for a missing vehicle and 16-year-old child, and found the two during a canvass of the neighborhood around 1:30 a.m.

Officers allegedly found spray paint cans in the car, and discovered the teens were going to the high school to vandalize it, police said.

The teens’ parents were summoned to the scene. The second 16-year-old has already been charged with being an unlicensed driver and operating a vehicle without consent of the owner.